Trisha Yearwood Uses Cooking to Remember Her Parents

Though Trisha Yearwood has made quite a successful career for herself in country music, the Grammy Award-winning artist’s talents don’t end at a microphone stand.

Yearwood’s talents also extend to a kitchen; a place she spent a lot of her time growing up, alongside her mother Gwen and sister Beth. In 2008, the Yearwood ladies joined forces to release their first cookbook, Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen.

The book’s recipes were special family recipes, containing liner notes that described the origin of each. Two years later, the three women teamed back up for Home Cooking with Trisha Yearwood, likewise consisting of family recipes and dedications to relatives.

To continue carrying on her mother’s love for cooking and the skills she instilled in her vocalist daughter, Yearwood launched a Food Network show, Trisha’s Southern Kitchen, on April 14, 2012.

The show, which is filmed in Nashville, Tennessee, shares more family recipes with a few tweaks by Yearwood.

Considering the ingredients that go into a true Southern meal, Yearwood offers alternatives to some of her family recipes a bit to pass along healthier, albeit equally tasty, options to her viewers.

Yearwood told the Palm Beach Post, “I understand why America wants to see how to make crock pot macaroni and cheese, but I also think it’s important to show people how you can make a dish a lot healthier. Like when you can use skim milk instead of whole milk and it won’t make a difference in the recipe and when it will make a difference. I think most people who cook are looking for ways to enjoy these foods without it killing them, so our show is trying to walk that line: Here’s a recipe my grandma made, but here’s a way I learned to make it where you still get the comfort out of it but it’s better for you.”

Trisha’s Southern Kitchen hasn’t just been cathartic for the country singer who is currently on tour with her husband, Garth Brooks. The show has proven to be incredibly successful, as well, providing Yearwood with her first Emmy Award for Outstanding Culinary Program.

The acclaim the show has received also gave way to a third cookbook, Trisha’sTable: My Feel-Good Favorites for a Balanced Life, which debuted at No. 7 on the New York Times’ Bestsellers List.

Through all the achievements, the most special part of the Food Network and cookbook experiences has been honoring her family and allowing her mother to live on through her cooking. Inviting her sister, Beth, to help her in the kitchen on several occasions, Yearwood tells stories of her childhood, shares her mother’s favorite recipes, and ensures that her parents’ memories live on at the hand of her loyal fan base.